


The Fourth Moth

by Sweety_Mutant



Category: Black Sails
Genre: 3x10, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Episode Related, M/M, Season Finale, Sequel, XXVIII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 04:23:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6408643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweety_Mutant/pseuds/Sweety_Mutant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flint learns fateful news, and sees the pattern. </p><p>Sequel to "Learning Vulnerability". It won't make much sense if you did not read that one before ^^</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fourth Moth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mad_Amethyst](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Amethyst/gifts).



> Thank you for your request Amethyst! I love you, you little shit!
> 
> Here is a link to the prequel: [Learning Vulnerability](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6188572/chapters/14179048)
> 
> Again I highly suggest you read that one first. ;)
> 
> I hope you will like the conclusion, have fun reading!

 

The night after the battle, Flint could not find sleep. His conversation with Silver the night before had not plagued him during the day, adrenaline taking over his thoughts. Yet, now, in the dead of the night, it was all coming back to him. Words crashing in his brain, crushing his heart. 

_“It would seem that those closest to you meet their end not just during their relationship, but because of it. And as I sit here, I'm acutely aware there may be no one closer to you in the world right now than I.”_

Oh, what Flint would have given to prove Silver wrong!

A few days ago… only a few days ago… Silver had not been the closest person to Flint.

Until that very evening on the beach, amid the British corpses, when he had heard those fateful words leave Teach’s lips… there had been someone closer.  Someone who should have never left the safe haven of Ocracoke. Someone Flint should never have…

Oh, how Flint wanted to prove Silver wrong!

He destroyed all that he touched. All that touched him. It had never been the other way around. He should have known.

Three’s a pattern, they say. What do you make of four then?

_“So you see yourself as a potential fourth member of this class, concerned that your association with me will lead to your end.”_

His fourth, willing victim… No. Unknown to their secluded island, the fourth one had already fallen.

* * *

 

_“I did not come here to help you. I was on my way to Nassau, and was quite surprised not to find you on the Walrus. Actually, there is something I’d like to ask you…” a few seconds passed. “Why the hell did you leave Charles in Nassau?”_

_No._

_Not yet._

_Not him._

_But Teach’s eyes did not lie. Pain never lied. Flint did not ask for details. He could guess them very well on his own. And yet Teach gave them. Hung on the square. A nightmarish picture to feed his guilt._

_He blamed Billy first. Himself then, Billy again. Himself at last. Himself, the sole responsible. It should have been him who had stayed in Nassau. He should have been the one who had tried to save Vane from his fate.  He would have failed, no doubt._

_Whatever... Such an outcome did not exist. It would never exist. The claws of guilt ripped him again. His heart burnt, choking him._

* * *

 

Why?

Why had he abandoned him? He had known… All along Flint had known, when he had set sails… Again and again behind his lids, he had seen Vane die.

Why?

Why did he think that somehow it could be different? He had allowed Vane into his inner circle…

_“Well, the three who preceded me all had one thing in common. They were vulnerable to you. Had more to lose than you, less means with which to protect themselves than you.”_

Flint cradled his head in his hands, willing Silver’s voice to shut the fuck up and leave him alone.

Vane was not… Vane had never been vulnerable to him. They had been partners on an equal footing… or so he hoped. Vane was free, had nothing to lose. He prided himself on having nothing to lose… Had Vane been vulnerable to him? Their partnership. It had been built on mutual trust, a common goal...

The fool, Flint had thought himself the most vulnerable of the two of them. The war weighting on his shoulders, chains tying him to British ghosts. Selfish, he had been blind to the truth. He had not seen Vane’s own vulnerability.

His deeply-rooted vulnerability to one Eleanor Guthrie.

That of the scorned lover.

His vulnerability to Blackbeard's words.

That of the forsaken son.

His vulnerability to the comfort. The comfort of a friend, a companion, a home.

That of temptation.

The ever present temptation in the person of Flint.

Vane’s vulnerability at a simple question… _“Who are you?”_

Angry tears threatened to spill from Flint's eyes. He had not been ready to know the name of his demons’ fourth victim.

Thomas, Hal, Miranda... They had been milestones in his life. For each, a different kind of love in his heart. For each, a story to share. But Vane... Vane. Flint felt as if he never had the time to build that story. Grief. There was never enough time for the bereaved.

Why so soon?

If people met their ends because of their relationships with him, why life had not left Flint and Vane time to have that relationship? Flint had grazed it, the state that is more than friendship but has not yet bloomed into more. With his fingertips, a single contact before it was taken away forever.

How he would have wanted to share more with Vane! That night, alone in his mind, Flint longed for a touch now cold, a mind he never quite understood and a man he had hated for too long.

_I'm acutely aware there may be no one closer to you in the world right now than I._

No, Silver. Not yet. You are not the closest person to me. Flint had a last duty to carry before Silver could claim that space in his life.

A duty that he had been denied before, with Thomas, dead far away. With Hal, destroyed by his own hands. With Miranda, left in the streets.

Before he could allow anyone in his life, Flint swore to himself that he would come back to Nassau. He should never had left Vane there. Now, he would come back to bury him.

Give him a proper funeral. Give a proper farewell to yet another moth burned by his hellish light.

**Author's Note:**

> The end!  
> The real end, because I was way too faithful to canon...  
> Feel free to drop a comment, I'll answer with love and... cookies!


End file.
